


Indiscreet

by Xero_Sky



Category: Pacific Rim (Movies)
Genre: Established Relationship, Formal events, Herc knows everything, M/M, Most people live, Post-Canon, Privacy Issues, Romance, Uniforms
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-18
Updated: 2018-01-18
Packaged: 2019-03-06 08:16:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,422
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13407156
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Xero_Sky/pseuds/Xero_Sky
Summary: Raleigh Becket and Chuck Hansen have been together for three years by the time Pitfall happens, but that doesn't mean they know how a relationship works in peacetime.Or:  Chuck's mouth gets him into trouble, Herc wears a sash, Yancy hits waaay out of his league, Raleigh wants to run with scissors, and Mako geeks out with the King.





	Indiscreet

Chuck Hansen emerged from the depth of the Shatterdome’s Christmas tree like a particularly grumpy Christmas ghost.  It was unreasonably large and built of pallets, spare parts, a bunch of green tarps, and roughly 5 million Christmas lights.  They’d been scrounged from everywhere, none of them matched, and everyone with an electrician’s certificate had been called in to help.  Eventually, Chuck had gotten involved, and most of the lights were working now, although the top was still dark and one portion was blinking maniacally.  Scratched and irritated, he’d almost traced out the last section when Raleigh’d turned up and started spouting nonsense at him.

“ _What?_ ” 

Looking completely unrepentant, Raleigh repeated himself.  “I said, the president has invited you to attend a state dinner and reception being held in honor of the King and Queen.”

“King of _what_?”

“Of England?  And Canada, I guess?” Raleigh supplied patiently.

“What the fuck for?”

Raleigh scrubbed a hand through his hair and sighed.

“I guess they want to inflict your boyish charm and sparkling wit on them.”

“It’s a goodwill tour, you doof,” Tendo supplied, walking up to hand Chuck a bottle of water.  “The royals are coming to get glitter everywhere and hope you’re all a little less pissed off at them by the time they leave.”

“Fucking wankers.” He drained most of the bottle and scowled.  “Wait, president of what?”

“Australia.”

“Well, that’s brilliant, isn’t it?”

Australia had declared itself a republic during the war, severing ties with the Commonwealth.  It had been a long time coming, with a number of referendums over the years, but the stresses of the war had brought everything to a head.  With Sydney in ruins, there’d been a few miscommunications, an MP with a big mouth, a particularly vile series of articles in the _Daily Mail,_ and a perceived lack of sympathy and support.

Anger had been a handy antidote to fear.

The referendum had passed with 81% approval from the voters.  Among the many vocal supporters had been the Hansen brothers.  Chuck couldn’t have escaped the explosion of Australian national pride even if he’d wanted to. 

“Yeah, well, maybe he’s showing off,” Tendo said.  “All the Rangers got an invite, but you know the Hansens were top of the list.”

“Dad won’t—“ Chuck started, but Raleigh was already shaking his head.

“He’s arranging for a tailoring shop to come in and deck you all out in dress uniforms, since nobody still has theirs and he doesn’t think you were ever issued one.”

“Fuck, he’s flying the flag, then.  _He’s_ the one showing off.”

“The Australian flag?” Tendo asked.

Chuck shook his head.  “PPDC flag.  We’ve been getting pushback on having the rest of the domes transferred back to our control, especially Anchorage.  You know how weird people get for that bloody family, so we’re gonna get in on all that happy media coverage whenever we can.”

“My grandma got up at 3 in the morning to watch Princess Di get married,” Tendo mused, check a new message on his phone. “Better get your plus ones figured out.”

His smirk did not go unnoticed.

“Yance should have a main, a backup, and a reserve partner by now,” Raleigh grimaced, pretending to look at his watch.  His brother’s love life was a thing of legend and terror. 

“You know they’ll expect you to take Mako,” Tendo told him, and then almost wished he hadn’t, because Chuck’s expression immediately went from annoyed to murderous.  “Look, man,” he defended, “People make assumptions.  If you’re not going to say anything, you’re just going to have to deal.”

“She’s got her own invitation.”  Raleigh crossed his arms.  “And I’m taken.”

“Goddamned right you are,” Chuck growled.

“Then you might want to tell PR that, because they’re pulling together a list of candidates for you to ask if you’re still going to pretend you haven’t been with Raleigh since you were 18,” Tendo argued, mild but implacable.

“Not gonna happen,” Raleigh said firmly, reaching out to grab Chuck’s hand. 

Chuck wasn’t a complete asshole.  He pulled Raleigh into a kiss, tender but short, and squeezed his hand before letting it go.  Then he delivered his verdict on the whole thing:  “There is no way I’m parading around in public for this shit.”

Then he stalked off to find his father without another word, leaving his boyfriend and Tendo to stare at each other. 

“Jesus, man…” Tendo started, not at all sure what to say. For a man who’d spent so much of his life in the highly-disciplined and precise environment of a conn-pod, Chuck had remarkably little control of his mouth. Maybe it wasn’t such a big deal, though, considering how much sniping these two did at each other…  Then he saw the look developing on Raleigh’s face and sighed.

It _was_ a big deal.

Raleigh left without another word, and Tendo considered texting Herc or Yancy to warn them.  The last time Raleigh and Chuck had a real fight, both their co-pilots had been inevitably pulled in and it had spread far enough that people out in the dome were taking sides (and/or laying bets).

In the end, he put his phone away and set about seeing what he could do to help with the ‘tree’.  Herc and Yancy probably knew already, because if anything was likely to drop a bomb in their ghost drifts, it was whatever had caused that expression on Raleigh’s face.

Jesus, he was glad he’d never followed his brief urge to try out for the jaeger program back in the day.  His life was complicated enough without having to deal with someone else’s drama in his head 24/7.

There was a shout and then a cheer as all the lights went on.  Chuck definitely had the magic touch with all things mechanical and electronic.  It was a pity he wasn’t quite as deft with people, even the ones who loved him.

*********

“No one’s asking you to like it.”

“But you’re asking me to go anyway.”

“No, I’m _ordering_ you to go.  Subtle but important difference.”

Herc strode across the jaeger bay like he owned the place, which was basically true.  Despite a series of attempts by the UN to reassert control, Herc’s grip on the PPDC had only tightened after Pitfall.  Once it was clear that he had the support of most of the PPDC’s veterans, he’d fully begun the task of rebuilding.  The PPDC had saved the world, and they weren’t going to go away now that they were less convenient.  Herc had shifted from a fearsome Ranger to a ferocious Marshal without much more than a change of office – he rarely ever wore anything fancier than a work uniform and he spent as much time on the move as he did behind a desk.  Getting a meeting with him these days was mostly a question of catching up with him, even if you were his son and someone had lit a fire under your ass.

Especially if he knew you were coming. 

Herc was never going to run away from his son – hell, the ghost drift rarely ever let them spend more than a day or two apart anyway without the shakes setting in – but that didn’t mean he was looking forward to the talk they were having now.  Thank Christ Yancy had already warned him Raleigh was upset in that special way that only Chuck could manage, so Herc could get himself in motion first.  The multiple distractions of the jaeger bays would keep Chuck’s temper (and his own, to be fair) from getting away from him.  It was an old trick, one he’d picked up almost as soon as his son had graduated the Academy, but it was still a good one.  One that Chuck had never yet caught on to.

Unfortunately, he’d caught up to Herc today about 20 yards from the bay doors.

“You and I both know I’m the worst spokesman we’ve got,” Chuck reasoned.

Herc accepted a tablet from a tech who’d hurried to catch them, read something on it, and then approved it with his thumbprint.  “No,” he shot back at Chuck, moving on. “That would be Mako, who thinks it’s a waste of her time, and Sasha, who scares the shit out of them.  You’re a distant third.  Besides, the Beckets are bloody fantastic at it.”

“Raleigh—“ Chuck started, before abruptly shutting his mouth.

“—has already agreed to go,” Herc finished for him.

They ran into a tangle of techs gathered over a terminal, trying to work something out, and stopped to lend a hand.  Chuck solved it quickly, brows drawn together in irritation, and stalked off after his escaping father, ignoring the praise that followed. 

Why was this bothering him so goddamned much?  He loved Raleigh, honestly, but the idea of going to this thing made his stomach drop.

Chuck caught up to Herc again on his way out to the deck.  The Shatterdome usually kept the massive doors outside the launch platforms open for the fresh air and light, and today was no different.  The view, which neither Hansen had really appreciated until recently, was fantastic, and standing at the rail, contemplating life, was a fairly popular pastime in the dome these days.  Someone had wrapped yards and yards of tinsel around the rail, and it was flapping wildly in the ocean breeze.  Merry fucking Christmas.

They found an isolated stretch of rail, aware that real privacy was too rare to pass up.

“You know how this goes,” Herc started after a minute, staring out at the Sydney coastline.

Chuck nodded.

“I’m gonna tell you what I think your problem is, and you’re gonna tell me to rack off, and then some time tonight, if we’re lucky, you’ll have thought it over and decided that you knew it all along.”

Herc didn’t sound particularly upset or even smug about any of this, and Chuck wondered how many times the two of them had done this dance.  A thousand?  A million?

“Get on with it,” he grumbled, crossing his arms.  He generally hated it when Herc was right about personal shit, and he already had a bad feeling about this one.

“Yancy shot me a text saying Raleigh’s upset, and that’s your first problem,” Herc began, registering the alarm on his son’s face and grabbing his arm to keep him there to listen. “The bigger one is that you don’t want to out your relationship with Raleigh to the whole world.”

“I hate to break it to you—“

“Yeah, you’ve been together for, what, three years now?  But that’s in here,” Herc swept a hand towards the world inside, indicating the whole Shatterdome.  “The media are nearly sure you’re both gay, but the shitstorm that’s gonna erupt when they find out you’re _together_ will be bloody insane.  This thing you’ve got, where it’s all cozy and secret, is gonna have to end someday, and now’s as good a time as any.”

“It’s none of their fucking business, is it?” Chuck snapped.

“You’re getting called on the mat, Chuck.  We need you both to go to this thing.  You can either man up and show off your boyfriend to the world, or you can watch him go with someone else because you’re too embarrassed to be seen with him in the world outside.”

“That is NOT why—“ Chuck started, appalled and angry.

“I’m not the one you need to tell that to,” Herc cut him off.  “That’s the shit thing about drifting.  You forget how much you need to tell other people you love them.”

There was a come-back for that.  Chuck could think of roughly a dozen of them without putting in any effort. It was all bullshit, though, and he ended up staring at his dad, trying to work out what to say. 

God, he _really_ hated it when Herc was this right.  He needed to get to Raleigh as soon as he could, though.

“Fine,” Chuck finally acknowledged.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.  We don’t have time for your usual routine.  You’ve got an appointment with the tailor at 09:00 Thursday.  Bring Raleigh with you.”

Herc gave him a long, measuring look, nodded once, and walked off with the last word neatly in his possession.

Chuck glared at his dad’s retreating back, and now he got a flicker of solid, well-earned smugness across the drift.

_Fuck._

*******

Raleigh stabbed his dinner, idly wondering whether it was pork or chicken.  It didn’t really match either one exactly.  His brother, who was going through yet another vegetarian phase, was no help at all.

Yancy had met up with him earlier, right after the thing with Chuck, and stuck by him most of the day.  He didn’t need the coddling, but some days it was just harder for drift partners to be apart, even though Yancy couldn’t actually do much to help him with the eternal problem of Chuck Hansen.  They were sitting with their legs pressed up against each other’s, and Yance couldn’t stop reaching across the table to touch his arm, or his hand.  Raleigh was grateful for it.

No one else in the mess gave their touchy-feeliness a second glance.  Most people who spent any kind of time working in a dome understood that co-pilots couldn’t just be pulled apart after they’d spent enough time in each other’s heads.  Even the Hansens were like that, more often than not, although they steadfastly refused to acknowledge they were doing it. 

It was just a Ranger thing.  He was lucky to still have his brother around to steady him up when Chuck knocked him off kilter.

He and Chuck rarely fought, but their actual fights were probably all the worse for it.   Chuck had the knack of pissing him off worse than anyone else he’d ever met, and just thinking about that now would make Raleigh even angrier.  That fucking asshole, just walking away like –

Nope.  _Happy thoughts._ He took a deep breath and went back to analyzing his dinner.  It was pretty good when you stopped trying to figure out what was under the sauce, and he wondered if it really mattered that he couldn’t tell what unfortunate animal was involved.  Probably not.

He also wondered if planning to strangle his boyfriend counted as happy thoughts.  Without looking up from his phone, Yancy reached out and grabbed Raleigh’s hand, interlacing their fingers firmly.  So that was a no, then.

The contact helped.  It really did.  That was why they shared quarters still, even if their new ones had separate bedrooms, and why they still worked together every day.  They were individuals but they were still the Becket Brothers, and there was no chance of them splitting apart ever.  Raleigh could barely even imagine it.

So, yeah, thank god they were among people who understood about the jaeger pilot thing.  Even though he still wanted to—

“Stop it.” Yancy looked unamused this time.  “Look, go find the little shit, fight it out, and then get caught having make-up sex somewhere public, just like you always do.”

“That was _one_ time,” Raleigh muttered.

“ _Twice_ , and not everybody can shrug it off like me and Herc can, so maybe this time you could find a room, yeah?”

“Fuck off,” Raleigh snapped, getting up and leaving.  He dumped his tray and didn’t quite stomp out of the room.

It looked like a fight, and it sort of was, but the drift never quite tolerated such things between the Beckets.  Other pilots could fight like cats and dogs, but something, maybe coming so close to losing each other, always had them touching over the drift seconds after any harsh words, silent and solid, affirming that there was nothing that could ever drive them apart.

It didn’t do a damned thing to make Raleigh feel better about Chuck, but at least he’d been reminded that someone out there would always have his back.

*******

 

Easily the most irritating thing about Chuck Hansen was how he could be so brilliant and so stupid at the same time. 

The most current example of that was how he’d broken into Raleigh’s quarters, having figured out the door combination that Yancy changed every other week to prevent just this sort of thing, and was currently sprawled on Raleigh’s bed, in Raleigh’s only private space in the goddamned world, reading one of Raleigh’s books.

“What the _fuck_ , Hansen?”

“You know how this works.  You won’t talk to me until I’ve got you cornered,” the jerk said, and fuck, he didn’t look smug, he looked _sorry_ , and that wasn’t even close to fair.

“Fuck you,” Raleigh snapped, turning on his heel to leave. 

Of _course_ , Chuck tackled him.  He’d sort of known it was coming, even, but bracing himself didn’t help him at all, because what the asshole-who-walks-like-a-man actually did was shove him into the wall, press him against it with his whole body, and demand that he listen.

Raleigh wasn’t into it.  He was busy trying to figure out how to cause Chuck the maximum amount of damage from the position he was in.  The bastard blocked his attempt to twist and plant an elbow in his solar plexus, but he wasn’t prepared for Raleigh slamming his head backward into his face.  With an undignified yelp, Chuck backed away, letting him go, and Raleigh whirled around, fists coming up for the next round.

Which was derailed almost immediately by Chuck doing the least Hansen thing imaginable:  he dropped his guard completely and apologized. 

“Look, I’m sorry, yeah?”

Raleigh blinked at him a couple of times and then crossed his arms.  “You talked to your dad, didn’t you?”

“I am an actual adult, you know,” Chuck snapped.  “I can apologize on my own.”

“So that’s what this is?”

“Look, I know I’m shite at this—“

“Got that right.”

“Christ, would you listen?!” Chuck stood up, scowling.  “I came here to tell you I’m sorry.”

“Why?  Because now you have to find someone you don’t mind being seen in public with?”  And, shit, that came out way more bitter than he’d wanted it to, because as much as he wanted Chuck to know he’d fucked up, he also didn’t want to admit it hurt that bad.

Chuck swallowed and closed his eyes for a moment, steadying himself.  Goddamnit, why was this so hard?  They’d been together over three years, after all, and this was far from their first fight.  Those had all gotten settled somehow, usually because they’d just argued it out until there was nothing left to fight about.  This legitimate hurt on Raleigh’s face was new, though.  Few things really got to Raleigh that hard – he had an ability to let things roll off him that would have driven Chuck into a rage.  He hated this.

He hated that he’d done this.

“Look, I love you, yeah?  From the minute I met you.  And I hate this shit, I hate that from now on, every time we want to show our faces, it’s all going to be about how we’re a couple, and if we’re not smiling for some reason, it’ll be because we’re breaking up, and if you have a meeting with some woman, it’ll be because you’re leaving me for her.  I’ve seen it, it’s what they do, and eventually it just fucks everything up.”

Raleigh only looked more mulish, and Chuck stopped himself, because that wasn’t what he was here to say.

“But that’s not what I’m here to say.  Look, I don’t want to go to this thing with anyone else.  It’s you and me, right?  I was fucking wrong to make you--  I don’t want you to think—“ he trailed off after a second, frustrated at his inability to get this out.  _Fuck._

Raleigh sighed, like he was giving up, and that wouldn’t work at all.  A chill went down his spine, and, by some miracle, his mouth decided to work.

“Look, I’m here to apologize, because I made you think that you’re less than everything to me.  I don’t have a goddamned clue what I’d do without you, and I never want to find out. Whatever you need me to do to make it up to you, just… just tell me, yeah?”

Another sigh, and Raleigh stared down at his hands, not looking at Chuck at all.  “I’m just tired, you know?  I’m tired of having to pretend.  Can we just…”

He glanced up and caught Chuck’s eye, seeing the desperation there. 

“Goddamnit, Chuck,” he all but snapped, exasperated but still fond.  “You know I’m not going anywhere.  I’m just sick of having to pretend we just work together, or that it’s a-o-fucking-kay for people to hit on you when I’m standing right there.”

He cradled Chuck’s face between his hands.  “I am so damned proud to be with you, you asshole, and I wanna show off what I get to put up with every day.  I know it’s going to be a shitshow at first, but that’s them, that’s not you and me.”

They rested their heads against each other for a moment, just being quiet together, and then Chuck kissed him, tender and sweet.

With a grin, he stepped back and made a sweeping bow.  “So will you do me the honor of accompanying me to the ball, my prince?”

“Fuck no.  You had your chance,” Raleigh said, trying hard to keep a straight face.  “I’m having Yance hook me up.”

“You’re taking Yancy’s leftovers?  Thought you had more self-respect than that.”

“I’m with you, aren’t I?”

“Oi!”

*******

The uniform fitting turned out to be only the first of many.  There were still three months before the event, and so there was time to work up full sets of perfectly tailored uniforms for all the victims.

Thursday morning saw them being measured to within an inch of their lives by a team of grim-face men and women who went about their jobs with the seriousness of a drive suit crew.  They wielded tape measures instead of full-body scanners, but the process was familiar enough for the Rangers.

It turned out that the only one of them with a full regular uniform left was Herc, and none of them had the mess dress and ceremonial uniforms that were going to be required for a public reception and a state dinner.  The tailors, working from the uniform regulations and a bunch of old photos, were going to have to recreate everything down to the gold braid.

The media sent in a barrage of requests for interviews, most of them with the Hansens, and anyone who couldn’t figure out what they most wanted to ask about wasn’t even trying.  PR released a series of blandly informative statements in response, which satisfied none of them.  They seemed to be hoping that the Hansens were still so Republican in their sympathies that they wouldn’t stand being in the same room with a royal, much less shaking their hand.  Interest over the plus ones was a distant runner-up, and one that PR didn’t respond to at all

Chuck still fretted over the whole thing, but an idea had struck him, and he was weighing it up in his mind.  It went without saying that it was a bad idea, but the pay-off could be amazing.  He had pulled the head of the tailor shop aside and asked if he knew somebody who could help, and of course he did.  It was a nephew, or maybe a cousin, but Chuck was impressed with her.  She could, she assured him, have everything ready in time for him.

The dome Christmas tree shorted out all the power to the jaeger bays at least once, but nobody would admit to it.  It was Christmas.  A good chunk of the crew didn’t usually celebrate Christmas, and it was the middle of summer, but most people could get behind bright lights, time off, presents, and a holiday schedule.  The abominable tree became a project for the whole dome, and it grew taller and wider and more blinding as the days passed.  Christmas day had been strangely perfect, closer to what Chuck remembered from his childhood than any since.

Somehow neither Chuck nor Raleigh brought up the question of outing themselves in public again.  Their epic fight had been averted, but there was a tension between them now, an awkwardness that both of them denied when their co-pilots, out of patience, tried to grill them about it.  They spent time together, and Chuck tried to make sure Raleigh knew he loved him, but they were often busy, and there weren’t many opportunities for the kind of demonstrations he thought Raleigh needed.  They slept apart as often as they did together, and Chuck rarely slept much when he was alone.  Neither of them spoke of it, but things were off, and they stayed that way.

Life somehow went on around them anyway.

Herc’s annual medical exam came back without the degradation in his reaction times that had turned up on his pre-Pitfall exam, and despite his objections, they made him do it again. That exam also came back fine, sparking off a feud between doctors who thought a man over 40 should have lower scores that that, and a Marshal over 40 who was sick of doctors, thank you very much.

Yancy’s casual vegetarianism intensified, rendering him vegan for a solid week, before failing disastrously in the presence of barbecue ribs.  Raleigh didn’t even make fun of him for it, so Chuck did. 

Barbecue sauce proved surprisingly hard to wash out of his hair.

*******

The final fitting, the day before the big event, didn’t start off that well.

“Listen to me – I didn’t throw the bloody thing away.  I just don’t know where the fucker went to.  Been busy, yeah?” Herc snapped at someone over his headset.  “Yes, I know.  No, they didn’t cancel Scott’s, and I don’t know where that is either!”

He paused for a moment, listening as he squared his shoulders for the tailor, who was steadfastly ignoring the fact that he was on the phone.

“You know they gave me and Chuck the Aussie VC right after Pitfall?  It’s here somewhere, so look around, yeah?  It’s probably in storage.  Wherever we keep the shiny bits!  Sort it out!”

The tailor flagged her assistants over.  One of them brandished a length of gold cloth and wrapped it around Herc’s midsection, over his jacket.  Once fastened, the ends sported gold tassels that reached almost to his knees. 

“A sash?” Raleigh asked, incredulous.  “Since when do we wear sashes?”

“Ceremonial dress,” Chuck grumbled, as his own red sash with a broad gold stripe was fastened.  “Fuck.”

There was an argument about aiguillettes in the background, and decorations were being laid out for each of them.  Apparently the problem was that the PPDC itself hadn’t ever given out awards; all of their shiny stuff had been awarded by multiple countries and the precedence issues were complicated.  Whose bit of glitter should pinned higher or closer to the center line?  Whose could be left off altogether? 

Yancy squawked as his pants were confiscated and taken to the nearest sewing machine.

A hat was grimly set on Raleigh’s head, considered, and snatched away again.

Chuck scowled, considered the cuffs of his shirt, and nodded in approval.  The assistant in front of him didn’t smile, but seemed to agree.

From the room next door came a burst of irate Russian, and Alexis, who was exempt from the whole clusterfuck because of his back injuries, started laughing.  He was getting measured for a standard uniform this morning anyway, and the tailor in front of him actually flinched away from the booming sound.

They were two hours in, with no end in sight, but at least they were making progress.  They were wearing pants most of the time now.

It turned out that all the Rangers got sashes:  gold for Herc, and red with gold stripes for the rest of them.

“Hey, do we get swords?”

That was Yancy.  As Senior Ranger, his uniform had a little more shine to it than Raleigh’s, and he was obviously starting to enjoy it.  A hat was put on his head, and he automatically adjusted it to a jauntier angle.  One of the tailors tipped it back into proper position, saying something in Cantonese that sounded mild and was probably scathing.  Yancy shifted it again as soon as her attention went elsewhere; the chief assistant thumped it with her fingers as she walked by, putting it back in place.

Herc watched all this in the mirror, shaking his head.  “Do you really think I’m giving you lot swords?”

“You gave us giant walking death machines,” Raleigh reasoned.

“It’s harder to put your eyes out with a jaeger.”

Chuck watched as the Beckets and Herc bickered good-naturedly about the dressed up version of running with scissors, but he didn’t have much to say.  The schedule for tomorrow night was tight, but what he wanted wouldn’t take that long, and if everything went according to plan, any flak he got would be totally worth it. 

If he fucked it up, he might as well not show his face around the Shatterdome again.

He absently went through all the motions the tailors wanted from him, treating them like a drivesuit crew; they knew their business better than he did.

The last few touches were the aptly-named decorations: the medals and ribbon bars that were pinned on, and the gold wire aiguillettes that Herc and Yancy wore as Marshal and Senior Ranger.   The Australian VC medals, or reasonable facsimiles thereof, turned up at the last minute and the Hansens’ medal bars had to be re-done.  Finally, large, gaudy medals that had always looked to Chuck like the world’s ugliest pocket watches were hung around the necks of all four of the Breach pilots: the Order of Australia.   

Mako and Sasha came in, equally done with the whole thing, and they were all arranged in front of the full-length mirrors the tailoring shop had sent over. 

Huh.

They definitely cleaned up nice. 

If things worked out, Chuck thought, it might even have been worth it.

*******

Chuck watched through the windows as the armored limo crept closer to the drop-off point.  He’d been to big events before, if none _quite_ so grand, and the sheer number of people was a bit of a surprise.  It probably shouldn’t have been, though.  The whole thing was being pushed as a historic event, and people seemed eager for a glittering, old fashioned spectacle like this.  It was being broadcast live in places Chuck hadn’t even heard of.

What a pain in the arse.

On the other side of the limo, facing him, one of Raleigh’s knees was bouncing as he sat with his eyes open but clearly not seeing anything.  Beside him, Yancy was also staring at nothingness, and Chuck huffed in irritation.  Damned Beckets.  The fact that they could shift their ghosting over into a full drift without a jaeger, pretty much at will, didn’t bother him much.  He and Herc could probably make a fair go of it themselves, if either of them had wanted to.  It was the fact that the two of them were doing it right _now_ , when Chuck would appreciate a word with his boyfriend, that got under his skin.

Herc reached over and gave his shoulder a squeeze without looking his way.  That was how the Hansens did things, and, Chuck was bloody grateful for it.  He didn’t need to explain a thing to Herc.

It might also mean that Herc probably had an idea of what Chuck was planning for tonight, but Chuck sure as hell wasn’t going to bring it up if his dad didn’t.

The vehicles finally pulled up in front of the steps leading up into the hall.  There were rows of security on either side of a wide aisle up the stairs, and behind them were throngs of media waiting for them.  Two gigantic screens had been put up, one in front of the building itself and one in the park beyond, to make sure that the crowds got a good view of anyone arriving.

“Oi, time to look pretty,” Herc announced, and the Beckets roused from their drift, blinking and smiling at each other as the doors were opened for them to get out.

The second Herc stepped out, the crowds went _insane_.  When Chuck followed him, they seemed to get even louder, cheering until they could nearly feel it in the stone steps under their feet.  They were the hometown heroes, of course, and very nearly icons of Australian pride at this point.  Chuck had been in front of crowds before, but he’d never heard a roar like this in his life.  Not even from a kaiju.

A moment later, the sound surged again as the Beckets appeared.  Back in the day, they would’ve jumped out and started waving back at the crowd, but they were years and miles away from that.  They were entirely professional, as was Chuck himself.  Standing as ramrod straight as he could, though, he couldn’t help breaking out into a grin at the sight of his boyfriend.  _Fuck_ , Raleigh looked good in uniform.  He had sacrificed his beard and a couple of inches of hair for this event, and in that perfectly-fitted uniform, he looked every inch the hero he was. 

Chuck didn’t pull him in for a snog right there and then, but he definitely thought about it. Sadly, it just wasn’t the time.

Another vehicle came up behind theirs, and the other members of their party were getting out.  Yancy’s plus one was a no-shit European countess he’d somehow known for a few years; she was wearing a scarlet silk gown and a diamond and ruby tiara that sparkled madly in the lights.  Chuck had told Yancy she was miles out of his league, but, damn, the two of them looked amazing together as he offered her his arm and they went up the stairs. 

Herc had brushed off all attempts to find him a partner for the evening, but most of the others had found someone, if none quite as glamorous as Yancy’s.  Although they hadn’t talked about it, exactly, neither Chuck nor Raleigh had brought anyone else, in the end.  Flashing his boyfriend a grin, he gave him a little bow and then held his elbow out, as if waiting for him to take his arm.   Raleigh smiled back, a little uncertainly, and then scowled before turning away to walk up the stairs.

 _Shit_ , that wasn’t –

Chuck caught up with him after a couple of steps and matched him stride for stride.

*******

The reception was largely a photo-op, and Chuck was introduced to about two dozen people in quick succession, all of whom posed for the cameras with him.  He’d met a fair number of them before, or so they seemed to think, and he knew how this went well enough to give vaguely positive answers in return.

He had a plan, but he hadn’t worked the logistics out, and he was on the lookout for an opportunity.  Unfortunately, it looked like the reception was gonna be a wash. With the constant circulation of glittering people and their associated entourages/security people, there wouldn’t going to be a chance to make this work out here before he was swamped by people looking to chat him up.

He fretted and smiled and posed, and kept trying to get close enough to Raleigh to see if he could make something happen.  The problem was that people wanted the co-pilots together, and just as Chuck was chained to Herc’s side, Raleigh and Yancy were constantly pushed together, despite Yancy’s countess.

The Australian president made a speech, and that seemed to segue into a speech by the King, as far as Chuck could tell; he wasn’t paying any serious amount of attention.  He caught the gist of it from the slight smirk on his father’s lips.  Apparently the whole appeasement thing wasn’t going too well.

Whatever.

He had another idea to get his plan in motion.  It was almost inevitably going to irritate the shit out of somebody here, but as long it wasn’t anybody he cared about, he could live with it.

*******

There were actually tailors on site to help the fancy people with their fancy clothes, a fact which amused Yancy no end.  Raleigh was grateful for it, though.  This was a white tie and tiara event, and though he only had to deal with one of those, it was apparently vitally important to get it right.  He lost the sash, changed ties, gained a waistcoat, and traded in his uniform jacket for a short-waisted tailcoat.  He kept the medal around his neck, but most of the other ones were replaced by bars of miniature medals which went better with the new coat.  He looked either very swank or really stupid, and he couldn’t decide which.

“Hey,” Chuck said, turning up in his new finery.  Raleigh gave him a long look and decided he liked these uniforms, because, goddamn, Chuck looked amazing.  Tall, broad-shouldered, and handsome as ever, he somehow lent the uniform a kind of roguish air.  It must be the Chuck Hansen swagger, Raleigh thought, because none of the rest of them looked even vaguely like they could strap on a sword, put on a feathered hat, and turn into a pirate captain.  It was silly, but he grinned at his boyfriend in approval.

Chuck’s smile in return was gorgeous, and Raleigh wanted nothing more than to kiss it off him.

But they were already being ushered out of the room.

Time for dinner.

_Fuck._

*******

The table was set so opulently that Chuck could barely see whoever it was sitting opposite him.  There was a head table, at which people with tiaras and such were sitting, and he had a clear view of that, for all it was worth.  He was seated next to his dad, of course, with Yancy on the other side, then the countess, and then Raleigh.

He sighed, deciding that he’d have to wait until after the dinner, and that he probably only had one chance left tonight to make things work.

At least the food was good.

******* 

 After the dinner, there was another costume change, but Herc rushed them through it.  He was clearly tired of the whole event; the drift was full of his opinions on the whole thing.  Outwardly, he was a model of professionalism, deploying his considerable charm against anyone who came into range.  There was no way he could hide anything from Chuck, though.

Back in their ceremonial uniforms, re-sashed and re-medaled, they were ushered out into the main hall again, for a final chance to socialize before making their grand exit.  There was an exacting schedule to be kept here.

Chuck made a move to get Raleigh alone almost immediately, but he ran into a royal stumbling block.  The King of England was a massive jaeger fanboy, it turned out, and he ended up in an animated discussion with Mako over jaeger stats that had somehow also trapped Raleigh.  They were under orders to make good impressions tonight, and even after Chuck caught Raleigh’s eye, Raleigh wasn’t able to make a graceful exit.  His Majesty was apparently not used to people having something better to do than talk to him. 

With a sigh, Chuck prepared to break protocol and offend somebody. 

And then Herc Hansen was there, charm fully armed and operational.

“You’ll have to excuse me.  I need my Ranger back,” he interrupted the King smoothly, laying a hand on Raleigh’s shoulder.  The King was, of course, the epitome of good manners. 

“Oh, of course, of course, certainly.  I take it that nothing has gone wrong?”

“Not a thing, but I’m afraid duty calls,” Herc answered, flashing him a grin that seemed to make up for any offense, steering Raleigh away without another word.  The King beamed at them, and then turned back to his discussion of hip joints and weight ratios.

Herc led his bemused Ranger across the hall towards Chuck and left him there.  “Do what you need to do, and make it quick, for Christ’s sake,” he told them, turning on his heel and leaving them to themselves.

“What the hell is your dad—“

Chuck blinked at him, still a little stunned and overwhelmingly grateful at Herc’s intervention.  Then he realized that his dad’s advice was absolutely solid, and that he had his chance right here and right now.

“C’mon,” he said, grabbing his boyfriend’s hand and scanning the room for a good spot.

Raleigh went along easily enough for long enough that Chuck found a place near the central fountain that was currently unoccupied but certainly not discreet. 

“What’s going on?” Raleigh asked with a laugh as Chuck turned to face him, taking both his hands in his own.

“I have some things I need to say to you,” Chuck started.  “We’ve been needing to talk about it for a while now.”

“And you think right now is a good place for this?  Seriously?”  Raleigh was still in the game, still willing to listen to him, but the window was starting to close.

Chuck charged ahead, because that was the way he went through life, and it’d worked a steady half the time.  “I think it’s probably the best place there is.  We’ve been together for three years now, since the very worst days of the war, and no matter how hard it was, there was never a day so dark that just being with you couldn’t make it right.  You’re everything to me, and I will do anything to prove it to you.  Including this.”

“Chuck…” Raleigh started hesitantly.  Behind him, Chuck caught sight of a photographer tapping his mate on the shoulder, and he felt a little sick, thinking about what was about the happen, and the consequences if he fucked this up.

“I don’t want you to believe for even a second I’m not proud to be with you, that I don’t want the world to know I’m yours.  I wanna spend the rest of my life with you, and I’m asking you, here and now.”  He went down on one knee suddenly, as if he’d fallen, but he was steady as he pulled the ring out of his pocket and laid it with the palm of Raleigh’s hand, curving his fingers around it to hold it tight.

“Raleigh Becket, will you marry me?”

There were a dozen or more people looking their way now, and some cameras were aimed at them.

Raleigh was too stunned to feel anything at all for a moment, looking down into Chuck’s face.  Wide, unbearably earnest eyes looked back.

Goddamn this kid.

He grasped the ring tighter, sight unseen. 

“Really?” he asked again.

Chuck broke out the dimples, the little shit.  “Really.”

“You’re an enormous pain in the ass.”  Damned if he could keep the smile off his lips, though.

“That hasn’t stopped you so far,”  Chuck asked, his smile turning wicked.

Raleigh looked at the ring and sighed melodramatically, before slipping the beautiful thing on his finger.  “Might as well,” he shrugged, as if his hands weren’t trembling.  “Nothing much else to do today.”

Chuck wasn’t having it.  “Gonna need a little more enthusiasm here, Ray,” he demanded, trying valiantly to look outraged instead of smiling like a loon.

With an eye roll which did absolutely nothing to hide his happiness, Raleigh tugged him up so he could kiss the bastard. 

It was sweet and loving and only slightly filthy, and when it was finally done, Raleigh didn’t even need to say yes anymore.

But he did anyway.

The clicks and flashes of dozens of pictures being taken got some of his attention, but not enough to keep him from going in for another kiss.

In the back of his mind, he could hear Yancy laughing, but it was all joy on his behalf.  The teasing would come later, Raleigh knew for sure.  For now, there was only happiness.

*******

The PPDC had moved back to the Sydney Shatterdome after the war because, for the most part, it’d been in the best shape of all the remaining domes.  The government that had pulled support for the PPDC had been so hugely unpopular after the Wall failed that it hadn’t dared move ahead with the plan to pull the dome down.  It had sat there, locked down and untouched, still full of everything but Jaegers, until the PPDC came back to take possession. 

Of a military base that hadn’t seen any serious upgrades in anything but Jaegers for nearly a decade.

The first round of new funding went mostly towards what Herc had called ‘making the damned place livable’, including fixing the sewage systems, renovating the living quarters from metal boxes into proper housing, and making the common areas into places that people might actually want to spend time in.  The war was over, and the PPDC desperately needed to invest in its people; nobody really wanted to live in what Yancy lovingly called “a dystopian hell-hole” if they had other options. 

One of the first upgrades had been the mess halls and kitchens, which meant that when Raleigh and Chuck made it to breakfast, the place was packed.  They’d been exhausted by the time they’d gotten back the night before, and only habit had gotten them out of bed on time.  They were fundamentally unprepared for the applause they got for showing up that morning.

By the time they made it through the food line and joined Yancy at a table, both of them were red-faced but still smiling.

“So how did things go with the countess?” Chuck asked, trying to reach for a little normalcy by needling Yancy just a bit.  The elder Becket was looking somber and thoughtful this morning, as opposed to sleepy and resentful of being awake.  Something must have happened.

“Okay,” Yancy shrugged.  “She’s on a plane to Frankfurt this morning.”

“Jesus,” Chuck managed, uncertain how anyone could fuck up a date bad enough to drive the other person off the continent.  “You okay?”

Yancy looked from him to Raleigh, who also shrugged.  “She’s in J-tech.  You know, Olivia?  She’s on leave.”

“Olivia’s a countess?” Chuck asked, a little stupefied.  He hadn’t even come close to recognizing her underneath that tiara last night.

“She’s from one of those families.  Von-something-something-something.  Also, we’re just friends.  She wanted to dress up, and I--“

“—wanted someone pretty to match your uniform,” Raleigh supplied, interrupting him.

Yancy grinned.  “And we looked fucking amazing.  Sad that someone stole all of our press, though.”

There was a round of wolf whistles and cheers just then, and Chuck glanced up to see that every video screen in the room, all of which had been turned to some version of the news, was now showing himself and Raleigh, in their very finest finery, standing in front of the fountain.  A moment later he saw himself drop to one knee.

“Oh god,” he muttered, and Raleigh jabbed him lightly with an elbow before kissing his cheek.

“Too late to back out now, Hansen.  The world already knows.”

Then the bastard shot his hand up into the air, fluttering his fingers and showing off the ring to everyone.

Yeah, it was embarrassing.  No, Chuck didn’t really need the biggest moment of his life so far replaying all over the internet forever.  The PR office was probably already swamped with calls, and any press he did between now and forever was going to have some question slipped in about how things were going with him and Raleigh.  Their wedding – Jesus, their _wedding_ – was going to have the highest security of any wedding in the history of weddings.  Knowing PR, they’d want some kind of post-engagement interview or something.  The fucking royals did that kind of shit, right?  “When did you first know you were in love?”

Ugh.

Looking at the way his fiancé was beaming, proudly showing off the proof that he was Chuck’s and Chuck was his, accepting the congratulations of friends, enjoying the fact that this was opposite of the discretion they’d been practicing for all these years, Chuck decided he could live with it.

“So,” Yancy said, throwing an arm around Chuck’s shoulders, “is this the part where I threaten you?”

“I think that’s after the wedding, mate,” Chuck answered, pretending to consider the question.

“I’m gonna be blackout drunk at your wedding and we both know it, so how about we just consider you threatened and go from there?”

“Works for me,” Chuck agreed, amiably enough.  “I’m never getting rid of you, am I?”

“Not a chance,” Yancy nodded, studying his fingernails.  It was just a fact; the Beckets were never going to live farther apart than next door, even if the ghost drift let them.  Marry a Becket, get a second, even more sarcastic Becket for free.  Chuck had thought about it before, and decided that Yancy was a small price to pay.

“So I was thinking,” Becket the Inevitable mused.  “In the interests of practicality and all, is your dad seeing anybody?  I mean, if we’re all going to be stuck living near each other anyway…”

“No.”

“He’s not?  Okay, great, because I—“

“I said **no** , you’re not dating my dad, Becket,” Chuck told him flatly.

Raleigh, catching this, laughed out loud.  “Go for it, Yance!”

“Shut up!” Somehow that made his fiancé laugh even louder, and Chuck sighed, sitting back in his chair and rubbing his forehead.

He supposed he couldn’t complain, though.  After all, his plan had worked perfectly.

*******

Three years later, Chuck watched his dad blush ferociously at something Yancy whispered right before saying “I do.”

Goddamned Beckets.

His own husband, standing as Yancy’s best man in much the same way Chuck was standing up for Herc, just laughed and then turned one of those ravishing, sunrise smiles on him.  Just like every other time Raleigh used it on him, Chuck melted a little inside.

He watched his dad sweep his new husband up in his arms and kiss him speechless, for once, and sighed.

 Outside, the press was fairly howling for a look at the new couple.

This was his life, Chuck thought. 

It was still a goddamned good one.

Raleigh stole a kiss on the way back down the aisle, and Chuck revised his opinion.  His life was _perfect_.

**Author's Note:**

> Just as a note, I've been writing bits and pieces of this over the last two years. It was a Christmas fic and then not a Christmas fic. It was mostly a Herc/Yancy fic at the very start. Then Yancy was dating Sasha's little sister and living under the threat of being murdered if he screwed it up. Then he lost his girlfriend and stopped being straight. There were no uniforms and then I saw Charlie Hunnam in a Victorian officer's mess dress and suddenly it was all about the uniforms. I'm still not sure how Chuck took over the whole story. No one actually got proposed to until about a month ago, and then last week Yancy made a move on Herc.
> 
> What I'm trying to say is that this, more than anything else I've written, is a giant patchwork of sporadic writing, and if it makes no goddamned sense at all, I apologize. 
> 
> Also, I have no idea why there aren't any waffles in it.


End file.
